The present invention relates to weaving looms, and more particularly to ribbon-weaving looms.
In prior-art looms of the type in question for instance as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,104,683 the various moving elements, such as the reed, the weft needle, the working needle and the shed formers, are individually driven via rotating or oscillating intermediate shafts, or else are driven via chains or timing belts. The problem with these solutions is that they are complicated and hence expensive to construct and susceptible to failures. Also, the high rate of wear of the chains or belts makes them economically unattractive in actual operation.
Another difficulty is that when a chain or belt breaks, the mechanism driven by it comes to a standstill and since it is no longer operating in timed coordination with the other mechanisms, it may collide with these other mechanisms with resultant significant damage. However, once the broken chain or belt has been replaced, it is very difficult to so regulate the restarted mechanism that it returns to synchronous cooperation with the other mechanisms of the loom. Aside from all this, chain or belt drives are very noisy and require a high degree of energy imput with a resultant development of heat during operation, so that such looms can operate only at relatively low speeds.